Meet The Most Overrated Players In Major League Baseball

It’s easy to forget about players in the shuffle of Major League Baseball. There are 30 teams with 20-five players to keep track of so it’s normal to lose sight of who’s good and who’s not so good.We’re here to make judging people that much easier.

Here is a team made up of players that many fans consider to be good, but in actuality, they are just average.

Kurt Suzuki has never been quite as good as people think he is

It's hard to deduce which catcher is truly the most overrated. Many of them do one or two things well and beyond that, they are typically below average.

Kurt Suzuki was never considered a star, but he has been considered an above average player, and it's difficult to figure out why. The highest OPS he has ever had was .735, and that was during his rookie season.

This year, Suzuki has the second lowest WAR out of all the catchers who qualify with enough at-bats to be considered. Even though he's touted as a defensive specialist, Kurt has underachieved in 2011 and has allowed one more run than he has disallowed.

Aubrey Huff was an MVP candidate last season, but he shouldn't be expected to consistently perform at that level

There's no question that Huff had a great year, but there's also no question that he over achieved with the bat and with the glove. His solid .891 OPS came a year after he touted a pedestrian .694. This season, he's 10 points below that career low. Put that with his .247 average, and you'll get possibly the worst clean-up hitter that has a job playing professional baseball.

Huff isn't a terrible first baseman, but he's no Adrian Gonzalez either. If a manager decides to put Huff in the outfield, however...

The streaky Dan Uggla is by no means an elite second baseman even though he gets paid like one

Now that Uggla's hitting streak is over, we can stop pretending he's one of the game's elite second basemen.

To say Dan Uggla is overpaid with the contract he received last season is like saying Rick Perry is a big fan of Church. His 2010 season was very good, but not quite as good as 'old fashioned' statistics would lead some to believe, and signing him to a five-year, $62 million contract was short sighted of the Braves front office.

It has been well documented that Uggla was batting .173 when his eventual 33-game hit streak started. When his torrid stretch reached the 30 game mark, Uggla set a Major League Record for having the lowest season batting average ever for a player that had ever reached a 30 game string with his .220 average. The previous record for hitting streak stat-boosting futility was .284 and reached by a player mediocre in his own right, Willy Taveras.

Jason Bartlett has been overrated for practically his entire career

Derek Jeter is typically named the most overrated shortstop in the Majors, and if we're to look at his star power from a purely statistical standpoint, that's true. Jeter is also a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer and one of the five best shortstops of all-time. Let's pick someone else.

Jason Bartlett has been overrated for a while now. He never gets on base, his defensive abilities are grossly overstated (he only had one really impressive year with the glove), and he's one of the weakest hitters in the big leagues. An .060 isolated power figure is rancid even for a shortstop.

Placido Polanco still has a glove, but his bat is no longer exceptional

The firestorm that was created when Derek Jeter was selected to the All-Star game was palpable. Lost in the firestorm was Philadelphia third baseman Placido Polanco was also voted in by the fans.

Polanco has a great glove, and can be used at so many different positions, but his bat is starting to regress a tad. Whatever power he had is pretty much gone now if his .067 isolated power number is of any indication. His .275 batting average is Polanco's lowest since his rookie season.

Ryan Roberts, Chase Headley, and the ancient Aramis Ramirez are three NL third basemen having a better year than Polanco, and not a single one of them got invited to Arizona. Although, to be fair, there aren't many third basemen having good seasons this year.

Ryan Ludwick was a hot commodity on this season's trading block and we don't know why

The poor Pittsburgh Pirates. Poised to make a playoff run for the first time in a LONG time, they wanted to make a headline move in order to become a true contender. Problem was that the player they decided to acquire is well past his prime. Even worse, his prime lasted only one season.

In 2008, Ryan Ludwick raked. He was a quiet MVP candidate and it looked like he had put all his talent together just before he turned 30 which was a great sign. A decent 2009 followed, and the rest has been average at best.

Ludwick's .06 WAR indicates that he is basically three doubles better than a left fielder that Pittsburgh could call up from Indianapolis. While he's not the worst defender, Ludwick is slightly below average in the facet of the game.

Boston's Carl Crawford is a bit overrated too, but it would be shocking to see him with the numbers he has now at season's end. The guy is a specimen, and he's probably just pressing.

Carlos Gonzalez has talent, but was last year an aberration?

Carlos Gonzalez was a monster in 2010. He was 24 at the time, so it was reasonable to expect that he would put up numbers that could have him in line to contend for the ever elusive triple crown on a seasonal basis.

This year, however, the 25-year-old has been a disappointment. The numbers 'CarGo' has been able to produce in 2011 are more akin to the numbers he put up in 2009.

He has been hurt a little, and he still has plenty of years ahead of him to figure everything out, but is he really cut out to be an elite Major League outfielder?

Ichiro's inevitable decline is finally here

Surprised? Even the greats get old, but Suzuki has practically vanished at the plate and in the field in 2011.

We're calling Ichiro overrated since most baseball fans wouldn't dream of labelling the future Cooperstown resident as the worst all-around right fielder in baseball, but he just may be.

For the first time in his career, Ichiro's season WAR is in the negatives. His 2011 -.02 is the result of a 4.7 WAR drop from last season. While he was never a home run hitter before, his .052 isolated power means that all the electricity that previously inhabited his bat has been grounded.

The most telling sign of Ichiro's decline is the state of his defence. The 10-time Gold Glove winner has been atrocious with the glove. Only the well-known defensive laggard Lance Berkman has played a worse right field than Suzuki in 2011.

Jeremy Hellickson is not as great of a third starter as some may think

Jeremy Hellickson is another young player with a ceiling yet to be determined. The Tampa Bay Rays rotation has been a bright spot, and Hellickson, at first glance, looks like a top-flight third starter.

The truth of the matter is that Hellickson has been exceptionally lucky this 2011. Opposing batters are only hitting .234 against him when making contact, which is especially low for a guy who doesn't strike out too many hitters.

His defensive independent ERA of 4.30 is over a full run worse than his actual ERA of 3.22, and his WAR (1.2) is the same as A.J. Burnett and Randy Wolf, two pitchers that most pundits would say are worse than Hellickson.

Alfredo Aceves has been grossly overrated by Red Sox Nation

Red Sox fans, some more well versed that others, have lauded the Alfredo Aceves signing as one of the smartest of the Theo Epstien era. That couldn't be further from the truth.

While he has eaten several innings, and has a 7-0 record with a 2.56 ERA, Aceves has dodged more bullets than possibly any other reliever, which is why his WAR is ever so slightly above sea level.

Comparing his Fielding Independent ERA against his normal ERA reveals a great deal. If we adjust Aceves' ERA to what he has been directly responsible for, it becomes 4.20, far higher than his 2.56. Aceves must pitch with a rabbit's foot in his back pocket.

Chris Perez is overrated amongst the other overrated closers in the game today

All closers are overrated. It's more of a glory position than anything.

Chris Perez is a shining example of that. He was selected to the All-Star Game since he had 22 saves prior to the break. He has 25 now, and has only blown three saves.

He also has a Fielding Independent ERA of 4.36, which is terribly high for a closer. His rate of strikeouts per nine innings has dropped by more than three since last season as well.

Most telling, Perez's WAR is -.01. There are players on Cleveland's roster not named Chris Perez (Tony Sipp, Rafael Perez) that would be more well suited to anchor the Indians' pen.